I am no cover crop specialist but I have grown Cereal Rye for 3 decades.

You can plant Rye as late as mid/late October (depending on year).  I just followed the combine after the earlier beans came off last year and that was for my primary Rye crop for grain.  As long as the rye gets in the soil and simply starts the germination process before freezing it will trigger the Vernalization and the plant will come on strong in the spring.

That said, for a harvestable crop I will not plant that late again.  Optimum plant date for Rye for grain harvest for best yield seems to be late August/ early September.


Air application used to be very expensive but for some reason it is comparable to ground application around here.  A lot of Potato and edible bean farmers use air applications so the planes are looking for work in between application windows.  I would think flying on the cover into standing Corn could potentially work as well.  In a dry late summer early fall it could be a bust too so weather plays a big factor.  Not sure how well the seeds can make it past the canopy onto the ground without getting stuck in the corn plant.

I think the use of an applicator attached to the combine head has some potential as well.